D.: When kinases meet mathematics: the systems biology of MAPK signalling

The MAPK/ERK pathway regulates fundamental cellular function such as cell proliferation, survival, differentiation and motility, raising the question how these diverse functions are specified and coordinated. They are encoded through the activation kinetics of the pathway, a multitude of feedback loops, scaffold proteins, subcellular compartmentalisation, and crosstalk with other pathways. These regulatory motifs alone or in combination can generate a multitude of complex behaviour. Systems biology tries to decode this complexity through mathematical modelling and prediction in order to gain a deeper insight into the inner works of signalling networks. Key words: MAPK/ERK, signalling networks, systems biology, computational modelling 2 The MAPK pathway Originally, the name Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase, MAPK, referred to a kinase that was rapidly stimulated by insulin and other growth factors. When cloned this kinase was dubbed Extracellular signal Regulated Kinase, ERK, and the name MAPK evolved into the famil